Honey Honey
Leads for the cure are running dry, so today you're on the trail of some bees with Ellie and Runner 13. Cast * Sam Yao * Ellie Maxted * Cameo Wood Plot Netrophil Activity You're starting today's mission in the rural idyll of New Canton's farms. But you do have a mission, and Runner 13 takes the lead to find a bee hive for scientific reasons. Maybe some honey too. Other Side Of That Hill Ellie explains why you need to look for bees. No-one wants Veronica testing them, or baby Sara, for immunity to the zombie virus, so she's investigating all avenues; even clues from ancient manuscripts about bee stings. It's Not Alone There are a few bees buzzing around as you make your way through a cornfield. Unfortunately it's not just bees with you in the field, there are some fast crawlers too! Zombie Free Hive After making it out of the field you come across an active hive, but it comes an with additional zombie. You need that hive, so the inevitable 'angry, bee-covered zom' is worth the risk to get it. Kill Zom, Secure Hive Cameo is not giving up on this hive, and rejects the suggestion to come back another day. There are some farm tools by a nearby barn that can be put to zombie-dispatching use. Get Indoors You find some excellent sharp things for swift zombie beheading. Unfortunately the bees don't seem to like this, and the noise has attracted more zoms. You take refuge in another barn. Roadtrip Once safe inside the barn you take a moment to reflect. Cameo misses Runner One; finding this hive together was part of a project they had. Despite not securing the hive today it's given Ellie a clue, and you'll be going on a roadtrip. Transcript CAMEO WOOD: Okay, Runner Five and I are at the edge of the New Canton extension farms. Are we safe to go, Sam? ELLIE MAXTED: I didn’t even know New Canton’s farms went out that far. No one ever even gave me the full tour before I relocated to Abel. It looks beautiful out there. CAMEO WOOD: You’ll have to come out here for a run sometime, Ellie. SAM YAO: I know. It’s weird, right? All of the stuff that’s happened, and there are still like, idyllic fields. Maxine and Paula took Sara for a walk around the veg gardens before we put her down for her nap. Maxine was saying it was just like her parents’ farm. Smells of wet earth, and growing things, and – well, I don’t know. Cow pats. ELLIE MAXTED: You think you can find us a bee hive, Cameo? I mean, I wouldn’t ask, but it’s important. CAMEO WOOD: I know there’s a hive one farm over. I saw it a couple of months ago. SAM YAO: You were a beekeeper before the outbreak? That is cool. Did you get stung a lot? I mean, does it hurt? CAMEO WOOD: You don’t get stung if you’re careful. And it was just a hobby. But I sold some honey on the side to pay for recording equipment. SAM YAO: I mean, I know we need the bees for like, science, but we could end up with honey, right? Mmm, honey in tea. Honey on toast! Honey on prawn crackers! ELLIE MAXTED: I think that one’s just you, Sam. SAM YAO: Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. Anyway, Five, Runner Thirteen’s going to take the lead. And yeah, the Ministry say there’s been Netrophil activity in this area. Molotov cocktails thrown at Ministry convoys, that sort of thing. Long story short, best to run. SAM YAO: Alright. So, Ellie. We need bees for science. ELLIE MAXTED: Yup. SAM YAO: Now, it’s possible that Sara made this face she makes when she’s thinking about doing a burp, but then she’s decided not to burp, and then she doesn’t burp. Anyway, yeah. It’s possible she did that face just as Veronica was explaining exactly why we need bees for science. CAMEO WOOD: I’ve seen that face! That is a good face. Excellent kid you made. SAM YAO: Thanks! I did almost nothing. Well, except saving her from a school full of zoms and Janine’s mad brother, who she’s interrogating right now. I guess I did do that. Anyway, Ellie. Bees. Science. ELLIE MAXTED: Right, okay, yes. So, I’ve been working on the lead we have about these Vikings having managed to cure the zombie plague. SAM YAO: Back in history time. ELLIE MAXTED: About twelve minutes past history time. We found that extra bit of the Edda of the Wakened Warriors. It led us to the chapel with the metal inscription in the shape of a map on the wall - which you ripped off the wall, Runner Five - and then we reunited it with its other half that we found in the Black Vault, and I translated it. SAM YAO: And it said like, “the unbound will wake up the unforgiven.” ELLIE MAXTED: “By the untouched shall the wakened by awakened.” Which I agree is a bit obscure… although, the thing your blood did to Paula - SAM YAO: Oh, yeah, don’t say it like that. It makes Paula sound like a vampire, and me like, well, either a sixteen-year-old blond virgin or the Slayer. Anyway, apparently my blood won’t do that again. One time deal. When I got bitten, I made so many antibodies that they could cure someone else, but even if I keep getting bitten by zoms – which, by the way, let’s not do – I still won’t cure anyone now. ELLIE MAXTED: Right, but “the untouched” is suggestive. SAM YAO: Again, not a blond sixteen-year-old virgin. ELLIE MAXTED: You were bitten by a zombie, but untouched by the virus. It must have some significance, we just don’t know what yet. But the Vikings and Doctor Dee clearly knew something. And it turned out that decorative scroll on this metal map was hollow, and there was a bit of parchment rolled up inside it, which disintigrated as soon as I got it out. If you heard an elongated wailing sound coming from the New Canton library for about three hours a few weeks ago, it wasn’t a zombie, it was me. I think I damaged my larynx, wailing. CAMEO WOOD: But you put it back together. ELLIE MAXTED: Yeah. It’s still pretty unclear. Ancient mystics really loved their secret knowledge to be secret. You had to prove you were worthy to understand what they’d written. You had to know all the background and be steeped in the lore to have a hope of understanding it. SAM YAO: Yeah. You know, there were some Doctor Who episodes like that. Late McCoy, some Smith. ELLIE MAXTED: Anyway, what we’ve got is a manuscript with a drawing of a British Black Pika on it. You picked a stuffed one up for me the other day from that museum, Five. Also on the manuscript, some white speckles. Don’t know if they’re a thing, or just some staining. Also, a drawing of a honey comb. SAM YAO: Ah. I start to get you. ELLIE MAXTED: And a drawing of the blue flowers that are mentioned in the Edda, and were also a key component of Ceretin, the mind control drink that Moonchild made. SAM YAO: I see! No, wait, no. No, I don’t. ELLIE MAXTED: Veronica’s reached an impasse with her research. She’s excited about what she managed to do with your blood. Reducing Paula’s viral load was just unheard of! But we don’t know how to do it again. She keeps coming up with these ideas like, “How about if I tested someone just as they were turning? How about if I do tests to see if we have any more immune people?” No one seems very keen to let her try to infect them to see if they’re immune like you are, Sam. SAM YAO: Yeah. She keeps wanting to do tests on Sara. I think Paula’s about thirty seconds away from punching her in the face, to be honest. ELLIE MAXTED: Anyway, she’s willing to try anything, even stuff from an old manuscript, hence the bees. SAM YAO: Because honey might cure the zombie virus. ELLIE MAXTED: We’re thinking bee venom might interfere with the virus’ ability to reproduce, hence we need a hive. CAMEO WOOD: We’re on it for you! Over there, Five. Just on the other side of that hill. Come on, race you! SAM YAO: It’s just through that field, right? ELLIE MAXTED: Huh. Old cornstalks. You know, we never used to grow corn in this country until Comansys did some genetic modification on the seeds. SAM YAO: Hmm. Someone’s made a little path between the rows. Head through there. So, Ellie. Bees. Really? Just because there’s a honey comb on the manuscript? ELLIE MAXTED: Not just that, no. There’s some writing on the manuscript, too. I think it might have been written by Doctor Dee himself. It matches other writing samples of his I’ve seen. SAM YAO: What’s it say? ELLIE MAXTED: “I searched for twenty years. I learned the secret of how to make a man die and return to life from the books of Mary the Jewess. The answer is at the house of the bees, but the labyrinth is a trap.” CAMEO WOOD: Whoa. A lot to unpack in there. SAM YAO: First of all, racist much? I think Paula’d have something to say about “Jewess”. ELLIE MAXTED: Yeah. Mary the Jewess was a real person, though, or at least a legendary real person. She was supposed to have been the founder of alchemy. SAM YAO: “House of the bees?” ELLIE MAXTED: Yeah, well, it’s a longshot. But still, get the bees, bonus honey? Hmm. Five and Thirteen, you okay in that field? CAMEO WOOD: Most of the stalks are taller than us. It makes me think of those cheesy horror films with demon children living in the cornfields. ELLIE MAXTED: Oh, I loved those things! When I was a kid, we used to go into the fields near my house and try to freak people out by hiding in the stalks and chanting! CAMEO WOOD: laughs Yeah, Yang and Kytan were always trying to get me to watch them. I guess I’m glad we never got around to our movie marathon, before Yang… SAM YAO: Runner Thirteen. CAMEO WOOD: - died. Before he died. ELLIE MAXTED: Cameo, are you alright? CAMEO WOOD: Yeah. I mean, no. But you don’t have to worry. It’s just hard to talk about. ELLIE MAXTED: I know you and Runner One were close. CAMEO WOOD: Yeah. He was - SAM YAO: Guys, it is windy outside? ELLIE MAXTED: Sam! Give her a moment. SAM YAO: Sorry. Look at the way that corn’s waving around in that one spot. CAMEO WOOD: It isn’t windy. ELLIE MAXTED: There’s something else in there. SAM YAO: The good news is we can tell where it’s heading. The bad is it looks like it’s coming your way, runners. Don’t slow down, don’t even think about it. groans Yeah, that’s what I thought. Crawler, a fast, fast crawler. Five, Thirteen, get out of there and keep moving! The way that corn’s whipping around, I don’t think it’s alone. ELLIE MAXTED: Great job, runners. You’re out of the corn. SAM YAO: And you only had to avoid four hidden zombies to do it. Not too shabby. Everyone good with taking the long route back? CAMEO WOOD: Fine with me. Can you two see the hive on your cameras? It should be just behind the barn. SAM YAO: Let me see. Ugh. Ellie, look at this. ELLIE MAXTED: Well, that’s… different. CAMEO WOOD: What’s going on? SAM YAO: Uh, I’ve just got some bad news. Well, maybe it’s weird news. CAMEO WOOD: What? SAM YAO: There’s something stuck in the hive. ELLIE MAXTED: It’s definitely a zombie. I don’t think anyone living could bend their neck like that. SAM YAO: Do you think it was looking for honey? ELLIE MAXTED: What, like an undead Winnie the Pooh? CAMEO WOOD: I see it now. It looks like someone must have taken the top off the hive, and shoved its head through the frames. SAM YAO: So, no bees. CAMEO WOOD: No, they’re still there! I can see one crawling on its back. Five, what if we each take a side? Maybe we can pull the hive off its head. SAM YAO: Yeah, but then you’ll have to deal with an angry zom moving freely and covered in bees. ELLIE MAXTED: Huh. That’s a really old-fashioned hive, isn’t it? CAMEO WOOD: Yeah. Heritage farm. Okay, so we get it free, and we run. You said we need this for science. Could cure the zombie plague! And there aren’t a lot of hives around anymore. Five, grab the zom, and pull! cracks, zombie groans SAM YAO: Right. You’ve got it out, well done. The hive is free of zombies, but do I really have to say “angry zom covered in bees” again? Go! buzz SAM YAO: Okay, it’s right behind you. It’s covered in bees! It’s really fast. Uh, I think this might be one of those last fast zombies we thought we got rid of. CAMEO WOOD: We need to kill it! ELLIE MAXTED: Or you could just keep running home. You can lose it. We can send a Jeep another day for the hive. You know, that hive really reminds me of something. SAM YAO: Yeah, come home now. You’ve still had a nice day out in the country. Some peace and quiet instead of all that horrible screaming from Janine’s place. CAMEO WOOD: No. No, that’s not how this is ending. We can fix this. There were some old tools over by the barn. We can kill this zom, go back, secure the hive. Come on, Five! door opens and closes CAMEO WOOD: Now what? ELLIE MAXTED: It looks like there’s another door at the other end of the barn, behind that stack of straw bales. If you move some of them out of the way, you’ll come out away from that swarm. CAMEO WOOD: They should settle down eventually. We can come back for them. I really wanted to secure that hive today. rustles Nothing’s ever going to be like it was before, is it? I keep thinking there’s got to be some little thing. A hobby, friends? Something. It’s all bad now. Even the good things just go bad! ELLIE MAXTED: Do you mean Runner One? CAMEO WOOD: Yep. This was supposed to be our project. That’s how I knew that hive was here. We scouted it together a year ago, or more. We used to joke we’d come out here and use this hive to set up the apocalypse’ first craft meadery. I’d DJ at the weekends, and Kytan was going to be the head of security. No zoms allowed in, and drink specials for runners on Wednesdays. Ky still thinks it’s in the works, that Yang is coming back. Along with energy drinks, and K21 TV, and it’ll all be like it was before. I didn’t tell him I was coming out here today. Didn’t want the fight. We already yelled at each other enough when I said we should go out together and put Yang to rest! SAM YAO: I think you’ve got the door cleared enough, guys. Five, try pulling it open. door creaks open ELLIE MAXTED: What do you want to do now? CAMEO WOOD: Oh, I guess we’ll come back another day. Set up a new hive, maybe, or see if they go back to the old one. We still need that bee venom for Veronica’s research. ELLIE MAXTED: Oh. No. I didn’t say, did I? SAM YAO: Ellie? ELLIE MAXTED: I have an idea. It was that old-fashioned bee hive that made me think of it, so in a way, it really was worth your coming all this way! Um. SAM YAO: Was it not worth risking the runners’ lives to get a bee hive? ELLIE MAXTED: I mean, we’re all fine, aren’t we? And, well, I think I know what Doctor Dee meant by “the house of the bees”. I think I know where he hid his secret. SAM YAO: What? Well, is it here? In a bee hive? ELLIE MAXTED: No, no. We’re going to have to send you on a road trip, Five. Category:Mission Category:Season Four